Stevie Nicks
June 10, 2008
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

The second week of Summer, I headed over to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, a venue I'm becoming quite familiar with, to see Stevie Nicks on her 2008 Summer tour. It had been a while since Steve Miller Band, and I was definitely excited for my first concert of school break. It was a warm day, and the anticipation built when the opener, a jazzy piano player named Peter Cincotti, pulled out six or seven of his great original songs, and closed with a Stevie Nicks song to pay tribute to her and thank her for giving him the opportunity.

Finally the lights went out, the band took the stage, and the drummer and percussionist played a cool little groove before exploding into "Stand Back”. Stevie took the stage, and the crowd went wild. She sang her heart out on the song, complemented by some cool guitar fills, and if you thought the cheers after she hit the stage must have been loud, you should've heard the cheers when she started to do her classic twirl, complete with red cape flying around her. Behind her, the stage lit up with cool mood appropriate graphics.

The band then played "Outside the Rain", transforming into her Fleetwood Mac classic, "Dreams". Each chorus was enhanced by animations of rain falling down upon the stage upon the giant screen behind the band. After the song came to a close, and she gave the crowd a second to die down after that hit, she announced she'd perform a song written after a phrase a man told her one time. The phrase was "If anyone falls in love tonight, I hope it's us," and the song was 'If Anyone Falls” complete with its very catchy synthesizer-drenched intro. She followed that one with a song I definitely didn't expect - "Crash Into Me" by The Dave Matthews Band. She explained that she had learned the song to 'spice things up a bit' when she recorded a show for PBS's 'Soundstage”. It brought a whole lot of cheers from the crowd, and it pumped us up before the pianist pulled a beautiful piano solo that filled the arena. The stage was dark with one spotlight upon him, as an animation of a girl presented in a medieval-like drawing style was projected upon the big screen. This solo was followed by a Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac classic, written after she saw the name of a Welsh witch she liked in a book of mythology. However "Rhiannon" had a twist. It started off with a ballad-like intro that Stevie sang slowly for a bit, and then it faded out. There was a moment of silence before the speakers erupted with the dark guitar-driven intro that normally opens the song, and Stevie sang the rest. Out of all the songs of the night, this was one of the best performed, and evoked some of the most cheering of the whole night when it ended.

She followed up by announcing she would play a song she and Lindsey had written after the first Buckingham-Nicks album got dropped, "Sorcerer", that, in my opinion, was a bit tedious, but it must have been a real treat for die-hard fans. After this, she played another cover song, this time, though, it was Bob Seger's "Face the Promise" which brought a new very heavy sound to the concert that we hadn't seen. This was no match for the song that was to come, however.

The arena's speakers blasted out a synthesizer drone. The crowd cheered for a song that they couldn't yet identify, but synthesizer drones mean something good is about to happen 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time it means that an 80's pop song is about to weasel its way into your ears and ruin your day. Luckily for us, the former was true. The guitarist, Waddy Wachtel, played the haunting guitar intro to "Gold Dust Woman" and the crowd let out a cheer. It wasn't long before Stevie emerged from backstage with a somber look on her face, adorned with a gold shawl. The song went on for much longer than the studio version- which was great. It was the best performed song of the night, by far, and grew increasingly dark as it went on. Each chorus was enhanced with animations of gold dust sprinkling upon the stage, and each member poured their heart into the performance. As the song ended, the crowd went crazy.

Following "Gold Dust Woman" was "Fall from Grace", and after this Stevie took the mic and talked to the audience. She talked about her father's recent death, and how he had always thought her next song was about him, so she dedicated it to him and to her young "Fairy Godchildren" in the audience. She announced "Landslide", one of her slow classics. As she performed it, pictures and videos of Stevie throughout her life, and pictures and videos of her parents throughout their lives, danced upon the big screen. The sentimental song ended, and the band performed "How Still My Love" before they closed their main set with one last song.

All the band members left the stage except for the drummer and the percussionist. Suddenly, the percussionist went into a wild solo which went on about five minutes, and then he stopped. Immediately from there though, the drummer took over with about another five minutes of soloing, and following that they both played for about another five. As they went on, Waddy came out and roared through some licks on his guitar to the beats for a while as a picture of him and Stevie shone on the screen. Then, Waddy started to hint at the next song with a riff he kept repeating, and, sure enough, the band took the stage and started to play the classic, "Edge of Seventeen". This wasn't your ordinary one though; it featured extended solos from each member of the band, especially the keyboardist who jammed for a while. During these solos, Stevie was grabbing the hands of the whole front row, met with an uproar of cheers. It wasn't long after this that the band left the stage until the encore.

The lights stayed off, but the screen lit up a couple minutes after the band left the stage. It was adorned with a picture of Buddha, backed with a psychedelic background that shone bright against the dark crowd. The band took the stage, and I, not knowing Stevie's usual repertoire of cover songs, was extremely pleasantly surprised when the drummer beat out the famous beginning to a song by the greatest band to ever walk the Earth. Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" filled the speakers as the crowd cheered out. The song was performed well, especially with Stevie's raspy voice, and each chorus was enhanced with a bright peace sign on the screen. After this venture into the Zeppelin catalog, they did one more song. A familiar piano intro began the smooth, "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You", a tribute performed slowly and gracefully, as pictures of our troops in Iraq filled the screen. Then, before you knew it, the song closed, Stevie gave a quick goodbye, and the band left the stage for real as the lights went on.

After such a night, it is hard to believe that Nicks is sixty years old.

-JJ